---
title: "Three Steps to Professionalize Your Distributor Sales Team"
description: "The quality of a distributor's team determines their market performance. A good team not only creates strong market results but also saves costs and increases profits. Professionalizing the distributor team is now the focus of competition and the future direction. Step one: select good employees. As the saying goes, 'Choice is more important than effort.' Distributors need insightful and ambitious talent that can be 'shaped' through training and experience into professional, loyal employees."
author: "刘雷"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-05-22"
language: "en"
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# Three Steps to Professionalize Your Distributor Sales Team

> The quality of a distributor's team determines their market performance. A good team not only creates strong market results but also saves costs and increases profits. Professionalizing the distributor team is now the focus of competition and the future direction. Step one: select good employees. As the saying goes, 'Choice is more important than effort.' Distributors need insightful and ambitious talent that can be 'shaped' through training and experience into professional, loyal employees.

The quality of a distributor's team determines their market performance. A good team not only creates strong market results but also saves costs and increases profits. Professionalizing the distributor team is now the focus of competition and the future direction.

Step One: Select Good Employees
There is a saying: "Choice is more important than effort." It's the same as the adage that a man fears entering the wrong profession. Distributors need talent with insight and ambition, as such people are easier to "mold." Through a series of efforts and experiences, they can become professional and loyal employees. So when I say "choice," I'm advising distributors not to hire casually to save time and energy. Many distributors have a catchphrase: "Just start working; if it doesn't work out, we'll replace you." This is often the hasty approach when hiring. This easily leads to issues like employees jumping ship, not adapting, lacking drive, poor performance, or lack of ambition, causing turnover. Then the distributor has to recruit again. This outcome isn't surprising because in the vast talent market, some applicants also have the same mindset: "I'll work for now; if it doesn't work out, I'll switch." So when selecting talent, distributors should check if the applicant's resume shows frequent job changes. If they change jobs too often, be cautious or ask for reasons. If it's due to personal reasons, use them with care. Pay attention to those who have stable work histories and good performance but need new space for growth. During interviews, clearly state the actual difficulties and job requirements in advance to see if the applicant has passion and confidence. This helps applicants understand the challenges and tests their reactions. It also directly discourages those who lack ability or dare not take responsibility, saving both parties' time, because recruitment is always about matching.

A second good way to select people is through employee referrals. Employees who recommend friends or acquaintances are generally reliable because your employees know your company's strengths and weaknesses and will explain key job issues to their friends. If they're willing to come, they're likely capable. Also, the referrer is an employee, and if they recommend someone bad, they'll face criticism from leaders and colleagues, which is uncomfortable. So referrers usually recommend carefully and responsibly, and the candidates generally meet or even exceed company requirements. This saves time and effort and reduces short-term turnover, as referred employees would face awkwardness if they left quickly. Many distributor companies now use this recruitment method. If through such optimized selection you choose people with high ambition and a love for work, then advancing your professionalization requirements will be twice as effective with half the effort.

Step Two: Systematic and Continuous Training
Of course, not all distributors are lucky enough to select good people from the start. Most sales teams still need management and development from the distributor. Especially many small and medium-sized distributors haven't completed a true corporate transformation; they register as companies but operate like traditional sales before. This leads to low team quality. As the company develops, systematic training is undoubtedly needed—not just systematic but also continuous.

Continuous training means big meetings, side mentions in small meetings, and periodic reinforcement. Any important issue needs constant reinforcement. Only such continuous training is effective. Training for new employees mainly includes basic company background: understanding the company's history, business purpose, strategic goals, etc. Professional training includes: familiarizing with the company's products and their basic features, understanding the corporate culture and vision, knowing target customers, sales areas, sales channels and their characteristics, understanding competitors and their products' strengths and weaknesses, knowing job responsibilities and workflows, and mastering professional sales methods and techniques.

Why continuous training? Because if employees are veterans, they're used to the routine of loading, unloading, collecting payments, and remitting. They've become numb to culture, market-oriented operations, display standards, etc. Without constant reminders, their numb nerves won't be stimulated. Only when the distributor leader keeps these things in mind and repeats them will salespeople form habits. Distributor staff and factory sales managers should "bombard" them, repeatedly instilling key tasks, so they move toward professionalism. Training should also encourage employees to understand professionalization, showing it benefits both the company and personal development. Then employees will accept new concepts and norms emotionally and execute better after training.

Step Three: Supervision and Incentives Go Hand in Hand
In professionalization training, you must also balance the "civil" and "martial" ways. The two points above are the civil way: selecting people who can be polished, speaking to those who will listen, and guiding the ambitious and responsible through frequent coaching to change old ideas and gradually become market professionals. But such "gentle management" doesn't work for some with low self-discipline. Then you need the martial way—the golden weapon—to stimulate employees and help them grow.

Supervision and incentives together are the golden weapon for professionalization. Through continuous training and teaching, use exams to monitor whether salespeople are familiar with new professional requirements. Use rewards for passing and fines or demotions for failing to stimulate salespeople to memorize key requirements and stage priorities. For example, new product selling points, pricing systems, display requirements, and important communication scripts with customers can be tested through oral Q&A or written exams to get real training results.

Also, visit the market frontline to observe actual execution. Salespeople who sincerely understand company requirements and truly implement professional standards—willingly and wholeheartedly—are the true transformation of professionals. For those who pay lip service but don't execute or advance, give severe criticism in meetings and negative incentives, issue serious warnings, and if they still don't execute, dismiss them.

The process of professionalization is a result of fierce market competition. Salespeople must be professional to defeat competitors and adapt to the market. For those without ambition, who don't identify with the company, or don't execute requirements, cleaning them out raises the dignity of executors, improves overall team quality, deters those who coast along, and strengthens salespeople's commitment to professionalization, improving overall execution efficiency.

Professionalizing a distributor team is a market competition requirement. Not pursuing professional talent development will leave you behind competitors. A "fighting" team is more "professional and tough" than one without competitors. If you can't win battles, team morale won't be high, ultimately affecting the distributor's professional progress and market expansion, and constraining the vision of becoming bigger and stronger. Therefore, building a professional sales team must go through selection, training, practice, assessment, and incentives, layer by layer, to accelerate and solidify the professionalization process of the distributor's sales team.

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